


We Could Be Courageous

by RonRos47



Category: Batwoman (TV 2019)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:53:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22402123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RonRos47/pseuds/RonRos47
Relationships: Kate Kane/Sophie Moore
Comments: 2
Kudos: 68





	We Could Be Courageous

“We all wear a mask of some kind. A cowl, a husband, a wife, denial, anger. We all need our shield to protect us from the world. But for people like us, it’s not always about stopping a runaway train or disarming a bomb. Sometimes, the best way to save someone is to be yourself.”

Sophie lost track of how many times she’d read those words from the latest issue of CatCo magazine in written by Kara Danvers which outed Batwoman as a lesbian.

Batwoman.

Of all people.

Sophie couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t have known. Who would have when there was always so much speculation about her everything from the latest rumor of her and the cop that saved her life to previous rumors about her and Batman. The latter which now sounded gross and so wrong.

Batwoman. Was. Gay.

It had been days and still the article hit hard. It wasn’t just that part it had been the rest to follow:

“Is that why you decided to speak out?” Kara Danvers had asked in the piece.

“People have this perception of me,” Batwoman had replied, “of who I should be, of who I am. It’s not fair to Gotham if I’m not honest about it. I’m not out to set some kind of trend or to be someone others should aspire to be but if I can help even just one girl to stop from hating themselves then maybe it can give them hope that even someone like me is just like them.”

That was the part that also resonated with Sophie. Her life had unraveled, her marriage dismantled because of a secret, a truth, a mask, that she had hidden from him. Her husband, her ex or whatever it was Tyler had become, had seen right through her after he’d found out that she had dated Kate. 

Tyler thought she was lying to herself. When Batwoman had asked about it Sophie had admitted that maybe she was or that she was too afraid to deal with it. At the time she had thought she was crushing on “Captain America.” She wouldn’t have known that who she was talking to was someone who was too afraid to deal with the truth just as much as she was.

Now the article had changed everything. Sophie saw someone more than a woman behind a mask. She saw a human being. A human being dealing with the same issues that everyone else had. A gay superhero. Sure she had heard about Dreamer, the hero from National City who had outed herself as a transwoman but this was different. For once Sophie could finally relate, she had someone who she could now see as an equal.

Kara Danvers interview with Batwoman had ended with, “Superhero, meta human, alien, human, it doesn’t matter who or what a person is what matters is being honest with who we are. It may be painful, uncomfortable, or the hardest thing a person has to experience. To some it might be the easiest thing to accept. When we don’t accept ourselves we feel alone or we feel like freaks. Those aren’t comfortable places to be in. Batwoman is not just some bat light in the sky nor is she only Gotham’s hero in the shadow. She is a woman of courage just as we all can be. She is a hero and she is a lesbian.”

Sophie sighed as she read the article for what seemed like the tenth time. Kara talked about Batwoman being a woman of courage. Batwoman talked to her about taking off her mask. Batwoman hadn’t taken off her mask but she had taken off another so maybe she could be courageous too.

*****

The next day Sophie glanced around the room.

“It’s looking good,” she said.

Kate looked up from one of the tables she was working on.

“Sophie,” Kate said sounding surprised.

Sophie let out a small smile, “Hey.”

“Hi.”

“Look I-,” Sophie and Kate said at the same time.

They laughed together.

“You first,” said Kate.

“Are you sure?”

“Why are you here, Sophie?”

“Look I know you said you wanted space and I totally get that and if you want me to go then I’ll go. I just was hoping we could talk.”

Kate nodded.

Sophie motioned to the magazine on the counter.

“So you’ve read it too?”

“I doubt there isn’t a person in Gotham that hasn’t.”

“Yeah you’re probably right. What did you think?”

“Honestly, I thought it was a bit much. I mean to come out to the world like that, just think of the risk she took.”

“Yeah probably,” Sophie said as she looked into eyes that she now could see mirrored Batwoman’s and Kate’s especially now that Batwoman had revealed herself. “Danvers was right in that article though.”

“What do you mean?”

“About Batwoman having the courage to speak up about it. Not many of us can do that sort of thing.”

“I don’t know about that. You’re one of the strongest people I know, Soph.”

“Who said we were talking about me?” 

Kate shrugged, “it was kind of implied.”

Sophie nodded and took a deep breath. “Tyler left me,” Sophie said to Kate.

Kate had heard this before but she didn’t show it. Instead she allowed herself to hear it for the first time as just Kate.

“Wow, um…why?”

“Because of you.”

“Me,” Kate said sounding surprised.

“Well me, us, I don’t know. It’s all so confusing.”

“Okay then don’t you think you should try to figure it out?”

“I’m trying here, Kate. I so badly want to move on, to get over you but I can’t. And now with Batwoman coming out it just makes it that much harder.”

Kate stood there with a stunned expression. She wasn’t sure at what had just happened. 

“What does Batwoman have to do with this,” Kate asked, ignoring the obvious part about Sophie mentioning that she couldn’t get over her.

“Everything,” Sophie said.

She didn’t wait for Kate to reply. She walked up to her and landed a kiss deeper than she’d felt in a long time.

Kate wanted to pull away but she couldn’t. 

Their instincts were telling them how right this was. Instincts that they had tried so hard to fight but no longer could.

“Batwoman should’ve come out a lot sooner,” Kate said jokingly.

Sophie pulled back.

“I’m, I’m sorry,” Sophie said still sounding a little confused. “I should probably go.”

“Soph,” Kate said to her.

“I’ll see you around, Kate,” Sophie said as she left the bar.

Kate stood there stunned and confused. Sophie had come over confused but after that kiss she didn’t seem to be. Now the confusion had set in for both of them.

*****

Sophie had been grateful for the distraction at work. It had only happened hours ago but at least now her job made her focus on the latest attack at hand. Unfortunately work wasn’t as much help as she had hoped it would’ve been. She saw Batwoman glide across the current building where Sophie was about to enter.

By the time she got inside her suspects were already apprehended cuffed to some poles which left Sophie’s crew to the cleanup.

“Do you have to beat me to all of my cases,” Sophie said when Batwoman jumped down from the rooftop.

“Maybe I’m just faster. Figured you might need someone to talk to.”

“About what?”

“You tell me.”

Sophie sighed. Why was it she could talk to Batwoman so easily when she didn’t even know who she was? It was almost as if Batwoman had become a friend.  
“I took off my mask like you said.”

“And was it worth it?”

“It could’ve been. I don’t know I’m so confused all over again.”

“What’s there to be confused about?”

“That it was my ex-girlfriend that I was honest with.”

“Oh.”

“Was it easy for you to come out, I mean coming out to the world like you did?”

“No. I thought about it for a while. Probably the second hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“Second hardest?”

“The first was letting go of the woman I love,” Kate admitted.

“So you know what it’s like then, to be in love.”

“More than you know.”

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“If you’re in love with your ex-girlfriend like I think you are maybe you should be honest with her too.”

“She might not feel the same.”

“How would you know if you don’t give her that chance?”

Sophie had nothing more to say and Kate wasn’t about to stick around waiting for a reply. She wanted Sophie to really think about things before she made any decisions that could change everything for her, aside having kissed Kate earlier that day. She looked up and watched as Batwoman made her way into the night.

*****

“Someone’s working late,” Luke said as he came into the bat cave.

“I’m always working late.”

“No this time you’re hiding out.”

“Okay we’ve been friends for too long now.”

Luke smiled, “Come on, what are you hiding from?”

“Sophie.”

“Wow, you never talk about her anymore.”

“Tyler left her.”

“She told you that?”

“She told Batwoman.”

“That’s not even the hardest part. She kissed me yesterday.”

“Okay major woah. How did that even happen?”

“I’m not exactly sure. One minute we were talking and then next…”

“I get it. So what will you do now?”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Sophie was just as confused as I was.”

“Sounds to me like you two are still hung up on each other.”

Kate shook her head, “I thought I was over, I was supposed to be but you’re right, I am still hung up on her. I still love her and I think a part of me always will.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“My guess is you tell her how you feel.”

“I tried that once, didn’t work out remember.”

“You never know maybe this time will be different.”

*****

Sophie arrived in the hallway where Kate was waiting.

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk.”

“I thought we already talked. Remember you’re the one who wanted space.”

“I know and I thought I was doing the right thing for both of us. I couldn’t be in the picture, not when it would hurt you and Tyler. That’s my fault.”

“What does Tyler have to do with this?”

“I think you know he has everything to do with it.”

“He left me, Kate, is that what you want to hear? I’m sure you’re more than thrilled about that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Are you?”

“Are you?”

“You know I told a friend, well a sort of friend I guess, that Tyler thought I was lying to myself.”

“Lying about what?”

“About us. I don’t know,” Sophie said as she went over to take a seat on the bench, “maybe he was right. I’ve just been too afraid to deal with it.”

Kate nodded and pulled out her phone. “There’s something I want to show you.” 

It didn’t take long for her to get what she needed.

“The Danvers article,” Sophie said as she looked at it.

“I saved it.”

“Why would you do that?”

“To remind myself of how courageous she is and that if she’s as courageous as I’d like to believe she is then she would do something like this.”

“Like what?”

“You need to know the truth, Sophie, just not here.”

*****

“A walk,” said Sophie, “what are we like dating or something?”

“No, I just figured it would be easier.”

“Okay what is going on with you now, seriously? I mean first you show me that article and now we’re taking a walk. What is this?”

Kate stopped and looked at Sophie knowingly and Sophie pieced it together. “The article, Batwoman coming out as gay, that was you.”

“Batwoman told you to take your mask off and you told her she was one to talk.”

“That was you.”

Kate nodded. “Being gay wasn’t the only mask Batwoman had to take off. I was afraid at first but I’m not afraid anymore, I’m not afraid to take off my mask, my real mask when I’m with you. I wanted to tell you before I just thought-”

“Shut up,” Sophie said as she kissed Kate deeply, no longer caring if people were looking at them as they passed by.

The night was theirs and that was all that either of them cared about.


End file.
